Kris stumbled forward as the crowd surged, pushing against his back and making him fall into the people in front of him. With a grunt, he righted himself again and tried to brace himself for the inevitable next push to no avail.

“Oh, for fuck's sake!” he heard exclaimed as the people behind him made a big push toward the stage, “The concert hasn't even fucking started!”

Those were his thoughts almost exactly (minus the excessive swearing), though he didn't dare voice them, let alone as loudly as this person was.

Curiously, Kris looked to his right to find the source of the voice and was able to pinpoint the man who had spoken almost immediately.

Unlike Kris, who was trying to do his best not to press against anyone around him, the man was leaning what looked like all of his weight back on the group behind him who seemed to be trying to move forward. Not only was their progress stunted, the man also had an impressive amount of space in front of him that he'd managed to carve out. And the cherry on top was that he probably only came up to Kris' shoulder.

Kris must have been staring pretty obviously because a second later, the man looked over at him.

“It's a group of middle schoolers back there,” he said, gesturing with a thumb to a cluster of kids behind him as he rolled his eyes in obvious annoyance.

Kris nodded, but didn't add any commentary so as not to start anything. Even though the man's volume was still loud enough that the kids in question could probably hear him. Not that Kris was afraid of some preteens, but he just didn't want to upset anyone.

“I don't know why they don't just save their energy for the concert...” the man shook his head, shrugging and looking surprisingly comfortable as he leaned his weight on a couple of girls behind him who seemed mildly put out, but mostly just accepting of their reality.

“Yeah,” Kris agreed, noting with some amusement just how slight the other man was as he leaned back harder when the crowd surged again and managed not to be pushed too far despite the strength of the masses behind him.

Kris, however, found himself getting shoved forward and to the left as some girls who must have been half his size squeezed between him and the person next to him.

After he managed to right himself, he glanced back to try and find the smaller man. When he spotted him, the man was grinning in amusement at his plight and Kris found himself laughing out loud despite the fact that the people around him might have thought he was crazy.

But before he could decide whether he wanted to shout over the now-further distance to the man, the lights dimmed and he was being shoved violently- his concentration forcefully being rerouted toward his survival rather than the charming grin of the almost-stranger.

Besides, now that the band was taking the stage, he wanted to soak up every second of the show.

---

By the time the band had played their set and encore, Kris was literally dripping with sweat- lank strands of blonde hair flopping onto his forehead in a way that would have had him frustrated beyond belief if he wasn't so focused on how thirsty he was.

Pushing through the crush of bodies heading toward the exit, Kris made his way over to the bar at the edge of the room.

“Water, please,” he requested as he pulled his wallet out of his back pocket, uncaring of the exorbitant amount of money they were probably charging. He was hot enough that he would have paid ten bucks for a glass of water, at that point.

While the bartender poured water into a disposable cup with ice, Kris glanced behind him at the traffic jam of people trying to exit the venue.

That was when he caught sight of a familiar profile- the man from before.

“Make that two waters,” he told the bartender impulsively, barely blinking when he handed over the six dollars.

Then he just had to get over to the man before he got swallowed by the crowd lest he end up an idiot with two cups of water who was down six bucks for no reason.

Weaving between some stragglers, Kris managed to maneuver his way so he was next to the man from earlier.

“Hey,” he said, feeling stupid all of the sudden when he realized he didn't even know the man's name.

Black-lined eyes met his, looking surprised to be being spoken to after the concert when everyone was worn out and just looking to get a cab home. But when he recognized Kris, his expression morphed into an easy grin.

“Hey,” the man replied, burgundy hair sweaty and plastered to his temples.

“Here,” Kris thrust the cup of ice water at the man and watched as his brows jumped in response.

“Water here is like five bucks,” he said, looking at Kris like he might be a little nuts.

“Three,” Kris corrected and then flushed when the man burst out laughing.

“I'm sorry, three,” he teased, reaching out to take the cup, finally, “Thanks.”

Kris nodded, taking a gulp of his own and savoring the feel of it sliding down his parched throat.

“I'm Baekhyun,” the man told him after drinking down half the cup in one go, water beading on his upper lip.

Kris brought his eyes back to meet Baekhyun's, reminding himself not to be such a creep and offering up his own name as well.

“Well, thank you for the water, Kris,” Baekhyun said with a quirk of his lips as the two of them finally made it out of the stuffy building and into the startlingly cool air.

“Where do you live?” Kris blurted out and immediately wanted to suck the words back in when Baekhyun's eyes widened in surprise, “I mean,” he quickly amended, “maybe we can share a cab.”

“Hmm, not sure how I feel about sharing a cab with a near-stranger who bought me water, but also might be a stalker,” Baekhyun mused, corners of his mouth tugging into a grin as Kris felt himself flush down to his toes.

“I'm really not a stalker,” Kris assured him despite knowing that that was exactly what a stalker would say, “Just uh...” he chuckled and ran his fingers through the damp hair at his nape, “socially inept. Sometimes.”

Baekhyun was outright laughing by then, but at least he didn't appear to think that Kris was a danger.

“Well, since you'd probably be the worst stalker ever,” Baekhyun began, “Not to mention incredibly conspicuous, I live off of North Halsted.”

The way Baekhyun was smiling up at him expectantly with a glimmer of amusement still in his eyes had Kris working to swallow even as concert-goers brushed past them on both sides.

“I'm in the South Loop,” he told Baekhyun with a frown, wondering why the hell he had to live in the opposite direction of Baekhyun. If only he'd known earlier so he could have planned ahead and lived somewhere else! But wait, that might be actually creepy.

“Then I'm going to go ahead and suggest we don't share a cab,” Baekhyun laughed, glancing over as couple of women who'd been at the concert flagged down a taxi.

Kris must have looked even more disappointed than he thought because when Baekhyun turned back to look at him, he smiled and took a step toward him.

“Tell you what,” he said, reaching into the pocket of his impossibly tight jeans and pulling out his phone with some difficulty, “Why don't I get your number and I'll let you know if I'm ever near the Loop?”

Kris couldn't have agreed any faster.

Though he had to retype his number three times into Baekhyun's phone due to his overly eager, large fingers.

But when he was in a cab- alone, sadly- on his way home, he couldn't help the giddy grin that spread over his face when his phone vibrated in his hand with a text from an unknown number.

i.o.u. a water!

and a second later,

but preferably not a $3 water. i'm not made of money! lol

Kris laughed to himself, hoping the cab driver wouldn't think he was insane, and replied, free water is fine :)

Ahhh~ This is so cute!! Standing can be surely problematic. Kris is lucky to have met someone like that, instead of just getting run over. XD Also eyeliner, oof. I love the teasing so much, too. ;A; Too cute. He's worth a $3 water. XD

Kris making a fool of himself makes me incredibly happy as well ^^ He is such a dork and so stupid I am cracking up just thinking about him. That doesn't stop him from being my bias though, I'm pretty such it just solidified it lol

breakout star for sure! hahai think it's less that he's choosing to reverse his stage image and more that he's just not pretending to be cool now. we know the truth. lmao.thanks for reading and commenting!